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Allan Kardec (pseudonym Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail , Lyon, October 3, 1804-París, March 31, 1869) was a French translator, professor, philosopher and writer, considered the doctrine systematizer called Spiritism.

Biography and work [ To edit ]

He attended his first studies in Lyon and completed them in Yverdon (Switzerland), as a disciple and collaborator of the Swiss pedagogo Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. He did not conduct university studies. He claimed to know the German, English, Italian, Spanish and Dutch languages. [ first ] In 1831 he became part of the Royal Academy of Arras. In 1824 he had already moved to Paris, where he dedicated himself to teaching, first in the institution founded by himself on the Pestalozzi center model, and later privately, when economic problems forced him to liquidate his Institute and to develop as a book holder and accounting of three houses of commerce, in addition to dealing with the translation of English and German works. [ 2 ] In 1832 he married the Imputriz Amelia Boudet, nine years older than him, and it was in this period of his life when he elaborated and published the following books:

  • 1823: Practical and arithmetic course , according to the Pestalozzi method, with modifications.
  • 1828: Proposed plan for the improvement of public instruction .
  • 1831: Classical French grammar .
  • 1846: Exams manual for capacity diplomas .
  • 1848: Grammatical catechism of the French language .

A second biographical period began for Rivail when, in 1854, he heard the phenomenon of “speaker tables” speak for the first time, which only began to grant credit after being witnessed, in May 1855, of inexplicable phenomena related to outpatient tables and rotating or “dancers”, as well as with the so -called “automatic writing.” Persuaded of the existence of a spiritual region inhabited by disabled immortal souls with which it was possible Always with a series of questions that were answered in “precise, deep and logical way”, through the subjects to which spiritism calls “medium”, because they act as intermediaries in communications with the alleged triggered souls. All this matter, duly “reviewed and corrected” by the spiritual entity that identified before Rivail as “the truth”, served as the basis for the body of doctrine of The book of spirits , his work appeared on April 18, 1857, whose first edition was exhausted in a few days, reaching the sixteenth in the author’s life. [ 3 ] ​
In the prolegomena of this work you read:

The spirits announce that the times designated by the providence for a universal manifestation have already arrived, and that being ministers of God and agents of their will, their mission is to instruct and illustrate men, opening a new era to the regeneration of The humanity. This book is the collection of your teaching.

Allan Kardec

The success of The book of spirits led to the foundation of the Revue Spirite and the formal constitution, in 1858, of the Society of Spiritist Studies of Paris, which Rivail would preside until his death.

His “protective spirit” had informed him that in a previous existence, at the time of the Druids, both had met in Gaul and he was called “Allan Kardec.” The book of spirits It was the first work in which the author replaced his real name, and the birth certificate of Latin spiritism that, unlike Anglo -Saxon, defends the alleged reincarnacionista, particularly as an explanation of the origin of inequalities among men, apparently unfair.

[The spirits] that communicate through French mediums ensure that reincarnation is a fact, while those who speak through the mouth of British and American mediums declare that it is not true. How can we combine those discrepancies? (…) They are a real obstacle to many spiritualists (…). The spirits affirm that after death they are not omniscient. On the contrary, they reach the other life with all their prejudices, beliefs and opinions (…) It is limited to expressing their own belief, which may or may not be true.

Hereward Carrington [ 4 ] ​

Throughout his writings, A. Kardec speaks of higher and lower spirits: “They find the world of spirits, as on earth, all genres of perversity and all grades of intellectual and moral superiority”: [ 5 ] Good and evil spirits, minor spirits, evil and rebellious spirits, wandering spirits, vulgar spirits and liars “that often usurpate known and venerated names” and “say they have been Socrates, Julio César, Carlomagno, Fenelon, Napoleon, Washington, etc.”. The “verification that can be had (…) is, indeed, difficult; But if it cannot be achieved as authentic as the result of an act of marital status, it can be obtained presumptively, at least, according to certain indications ». [ 6 ] ​

In What is spiritualism Rivail also admits that some spirits are “liars, fraudulent, hypocritical, evil and vindictive” and capable of using rude language. Subsequent spiritual authors have repeated warnings in the same sense, which support the statement of Allan Kardec: «The replacement of spirits (…) is one of the difficulties of practical spiritism; But we have never said that spiritualist science was easy, or that it can be achieved by joking, being at any other science. [ 7 ] ​

The spirits, simply the souls of men, have neither supreme knowledge or supreme wisdom; that their intelligence depends on the progress they have made and that their opinion is nothing more than a personal opinion. […] You should not blindly give credit to everything the spirits say.

New works would be substantial in the work of systematizing the “spirit” or “spiritual” ideas, ideas that, being the key to their interpretation of religions, of unifying orientation, Allan Kardec did not consider of a proper religious but scientific nature, not why be founded on faith or supernatural revelation some, but on the reflection on the fact of experience of the communications of the deceased beings themselves:

Spiritism is both an observation science and a philosophical doctrine. As a practical science, it consists of relationships that can be established with the spirits; As a philosophical doctrine, it includes all the moral consequences that emerge from such relationships. We could define it like this: Spiritism is the science that deals with the nature, origin and destiny of the spirits and their relations with the body world.

The main among the aforementioned works were: The Book of Medium (1860), What is spiritualism (1862), The Gospel according to spiritualism (1864), Heaven and hell or divine justice according to spiritualism (1865), Genesis, miracles and prophecies according to spiritualism (1867). Póstumas editions have also appeared.

It is interesting that the exhibitions of Allan Kardec saw the light in the coming years to those of the appearance of works such as Manifesto of the Communist Party (by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels) or The origin of species (by Charles Darwin), while attending at the time of splendor of positivism and philosophical and scientific materialism. In relation to the first, Allan Kardec presented his “new philosophical doctrine” as responding “to the aspirations of man with respect to the future; But as this supports the theory of positive and rational bases, it adapts to the positivist spirit of the century “, making” his proselytes precisely in the enlightened class, and this in all the countries of the world. ” [ ten ] ​

As for the second, the coincidence of spiritualism with the Catholic Church in its opposition to materialism, as well as in the moral focused on charity, made it incomprehensible, on the other hand coherent doctrinal condemnation of Rome, formalized in inclusion, in 1864, in 1864, in 1864, in 1864, in 1864, of Kardec’s works at the current then Prohibited book index . Ecclesiastical rejection had already resulted, for example, to the burning of 300 spiritualist books carried out in 1861 in Barcelona, ​​after being confiscated by the bishop of this diocese through the Holy Office. [ 11 ] ​

Spiritism is the patent proof of the existence of the soul, its individuality after death, its immortality and its true fate; It is, therefore, the destruction of materialism, not with reasoning, but with facts.

  • 1857: The book of spirits
  • 1859: What is spiritualism?
  • 1861: The Book of Medium
  • 1864: The Gospel according to spiritualism
  • 1865: The heaven and the hell
  • 1868: Genesis
  • 1890: Posthumous works
  • Practical manual of manifestations
  • Spiritist vocabulary
  • 1862: Spirit trip
  • Collection of spirits
  • Spiritism in its simplest expression
  • Characters of the spyrite revelation .

References [ To edit ]

  1. ↑ Allan Kardec Biograph, En Kardec, Allan: What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, p. 134.
  2. ↑ Allan Kardec Biograph, En Kardec, Allan: What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, pp. 134-135.
  3. ↑ The chemist and astronomer Camille Flammarion recalled this data in his Speech pronounced before the tomb of Allan Kardec . In Allan Kardec: What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, p. 126
  4. ↑ Carrington, H.: Parapsychology and mediumism . Ed. Fish, Barcelona, ​​1981, page. 46.
  5. ↑ What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, p. 91
  6. ↑ Allan Kardec: The book of spirits , Introduction, XII. Mexico: United Mexican Editors, 1976, p. XXXVI
  7. ↑ The book of spirits , Pages. 38-39
  8. ↑ What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, p. 52.
  9. ↑ What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, p. 8 (prologue).
  10. ↑ The book of spirits , p. 32
  11. ↑ Allan Kardec Biograph, En Kardec, Allan: What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, p. 147-148
  12. ↑ What is spiritualism . Buenos Aires: Kier, 1976, p. 54.

external links [ To edit ]